Laptop External Monitor Support

[jbhardman]

I'm looking for suggestions on using openSUSE on my laptop. I work in an office and use an external monitor and my laptop screen 90% of the time. Usually about 3 - 4 times a day I have to take my laptop to go to a meeting. So, I unplug the monitor and off I go.

With linux, my system does not recognize that I have unplugged this extra monitor. The results are that anything I had on that extra monitor stay on that extra monitor, even though it's not there. Plus, I can mouse to the left and be controlling dead space.

Is there anyway to get linux to auto-detect that I have unplugged my external monitor and move all windows back to the laptop screen?

BTW, I have NVIDIA GeForce 9400M.

Thanks!

[deano_ferrari]

If you don't mind a simple manual approach, then consider using xrandr. I guess you could create a simple script with the required xrandr command. Then make that exectuable, and link it to an icon, so that clicking on it, executes it.

To get a list of display devices

xrandr -q

Based on the external display name (VGA for example), it should be able to issue a command like

xrandr --output VGA --off

This reference may be useful to you.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

If you don't mind a simple manual approach, then consider using xrandr. .

Further to the link you provided, I stumbled across an old year 2007 explanation of this: XRandR – finally, simple monitor configuration for Linux « Adrian’s Thoughts

Back in 2007, only the open source Intel, Radeon, and nv drivers supported XRandR-1.2; neither the ATI nor the nVidia proproprietary drivers supported. Its now two years later and I'm curious as to its state. Do the proprietary drivers now support it?

3 months ago I did with with dual-head mode under sax2, which I made a note of here: Using external display and slide projector - openSUSE Forums

I have two days of meetings coming up in 5 weeks, with lots of presentations and myself having to coordinate/support most of it. Hence I'm keen to find out fairly soon as to the best approach for me to adopt. I'll probably have to take the laptop into work next week, and start playing around with a projector with it.

I like the xrandr approach, and I'm curious to see if it works with the proprietary fglrx driver.

[deano_ferrari]

Back in 2007, only the open source Intel, Radeon, and nv drivers supported XRandR-1.2; neither the ATI nor the nVidia proproprietary drivers supported. Its now two years later and I'm curious as to its state. Do the proprietary drivers now support it?

I'm no expert with xrandr, but I'm using the fglrx driver (with X300) chipset, and can change resolution on the fly with it, and it correctly reports various settings etc. I haven't tried dual monitor configuration with it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

I'm no expert with xrandr, but I'm using the fglrx driver (with X300) chipset, and can change resolution on the fly with it, and it correctly reports various settings etc. I haven't tried dual monitor configuration with it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

With your ATI X300, do you use xrandr to change resolution on the fly? Do you use aticonfig ? What ATI proprietary driver are you using? The ATI Catalyst™ 9.3 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver (as it is a legacy driver) ?

For my Radeon HD3450 in my Dell Studio 1537 laptop, I believe I currently have the ATI Catalyst™ 9.10 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver (released 22-Oct-2009) installed.

[deano_ferrari]

Away from my laptop at the moment, but will report back later.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by oldcpu

For my Radeon HD3450 in my Dell Studio 1537 laptop, I believe I currently have the ATI Catalyst™ 9.10 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver (released 22-Oct-2009) installed.

I'm fairly optimistic this driving an external monitor (a project in my case) will work well with this ATI Catalyst™ 9.10 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver .

The projector(s) are at work, so I need to take my laptop into the office. But I just typed "xrandr -q" and I obtained:

oldcpu@dell:~> xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1440 x 900, maximum 1440 x 1440
LCD connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm
   1440x900       60.0*+
   1152x864       60.0 +
   1280x768       60.0 +
   1280x720       60.0 +
   1024x768       60.0 +
   800x600        60.0 +
   720x480        60.0 +
   640x480        60.0 +
   640x400        60.0 +
   512x384        60.0 +
   400x300        60.0 +
   320x240        60.0 +
   320x200        60.0 +
DFP_EXTTMDS disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
CRT1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

and I also typed "aticonfig --query-monitor":

oldcpu@dell:~> aticonfig --query-monitor                                              
Error: option --query-monitor is not supported when RandR 1.2 is enabled!

which suggests to me on my 64-bit openSUSE-11.1 with KDE-4.3.2 that the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that I have (which was created by sax2) is setup to use xrandr with this proprietary driver.

I'm hoping later this week, when I take the laptop to the office, that I can plug in the projector's VGA cable to the laptop, type:

xrandr -q

to confirm the VGA input of the projector is observed on "CRT1", and then hopefully only have to type:

xrandr --output CRT1 --auto

to enable the external output to the projector and

xrandr --output CRT1 --off

just before I remove the VGA connector to the external projector.

[deano_ferrari]

Interested to see what results you get with xrandr oldcpu. You are clearly using newer hardware and drivers.

With your ATI X300, do you use xrandr to change resolution on the fly?

I can do this ok, but thats about it. My laptop has an analog vga port. I note that my display devices are not uniquely reported with xrandr. Strangely, if I do 'xrandr -q' the external VGA device modes get added to my laptop display modes.

The driver packages (openSUSE 11.0) are

ati-fglrxG01-kmp-pae-8.593_2.6.25.20_0.5.1-14.1
x11-video-fglrxG01-8.593-14.1

Anyway, I have been using the Catalyst Control Centre (launched via 'amdcccle' command) to configure the second display. With this, my external display can be setup dynamically as a clone (default) or as part of a 'Big Desktop'. (BTW, I'm using KDE4, and it seems to work ok with these configurations).

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

Interested to see what results you get with xrandr oldcpu. You are clearly using newer hardware and drivers.

I may get the chance later today, as there is a very brief period this afternoon where the conference room (with the projector I wish to test against) will be available.

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

Anyway, I have been using the Catalyst Control Centre (launched via 'amdcccle' command) to configure the second display. With this, my external display can be setup dynamically as a clone (default) or as part of a 'Big Desktop'. (BTW, I'm using KDE4, and it seems to work ok with these configurations).

I'm thinking the openSUSE wiki on ATI graphic hardware is in need of a major update to reflect the changes that have been made in openSUSE-11.2. Specifically:

• xorg is moving away from requiring an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. In fact in 11.2, for many PCs graphic hardware, that xorg.conf file is not needed. I believe words to that effect are needed in the wiki ...
• references to sax2 need to be reconsidered. Is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that is created by sax2 to be preferred over the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that can be created by the program aticonfig ? SuSE-GmbH made the decision NOT to include sax2 in YaST (although it is available via menu) which suggests they are moving away from sax2
• an update for nVidia, ATI and Intel graphic hardware (and possibly some others) describing how to drive multiple monitors is needed, especially given the latest changes to openSUSE and to the openGL and proprietary drivers, needs to be created. For example, your post above was the first reference I had noted to amdcccle being a GUI program that allows detailed configuration over the ATI driver's controls. Surfing indicated "amdcccle" was indeed used by many - I especially obtained many hits by Ubuntu users struggling with it. I also note xrandr can be used in some cases, and the demarkation between the two (xrandr vs amdcccle) is very fuzzy to me.

Some old wiki, needing updating as of openSUSE-11.2:

• ATI - openSUSE
• ATI/The Hard Way - openSUSE
• NVIDIA - openSUSE (and the various referenced URLs)
• Laptops and external VGA - openSUSE
• Configuring graphics cards/Dual Head Mode - openSUSE
• Multiple Screens Using XRandR - openSUSE

I suspect there are more graphic related wiki needing update

[deano_ferrari]

I agree with you oldcpu.

references to sax2 need to be reconsidered. Is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that is created by sax2 to be preferred over the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that can be created by the program aticonfig ? SuSE-GmbH made the decision NOT to include sax2 in YaST (although it is available via menu) which suggests they are moving away from sax2

Yes, with the move towards automatic detection of hardware and X-server configuration, it looks like they are deprecating (or discouraging) the use of sax2. I guess it makes sense that where manual configuration is necessary. and proprietary drivers are used, then they are probably best configured with proprietary tools such as 'aticonfig' and 'amdcccle', but I wish the documentation was updated to cater for these changes.